Social Orders and Creation Stories: Crash Course World Mythology #5

Video

by CrashCourse
published on 18 October 2017

In which Mike Rugnetta sits you down for a little talk about myth as a way to construct or reinforce social orders. Specifically, we’re going to look today at stories from around the world that establish or amplify the idea that the errors of women have brought bad things into the world. We’re talking about the idea that death and disease and pain came into the world as a result of human (specifically woman human) action, and that men should therefore be considered superior to women. This idea, which on its face may sound a little out there to our modern ears, is persistent and pernicious. We’re interested in looking at the ways that stories make social orders. We’ll look at Abrahamic, Greek, and Japanese creation stories that have, over the millennia, served to push something of a social order agenda.

Sources:
Introduction to Mythology by Eva Thurry and Margaret Devinney - https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Mythology-Contemporary-Approaches-Classical/dp/019985923X

World Mythology: The Illustrated Guide edited by Roy Willis - https://www.amazon.com/World-Mythology-Illustrated-Roy-Willis/dp/0195307526

Crash Course is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at http://www.patreon.com/crashcourse

Thanks to the following Patrons for their generous monthly contributions that help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever:

Mark, Les Aker, Robert Kunz, William McGraw, Jeffrey Thompson, Jason A Saslow, Rizwan Kassim, Eric Prestemon, Malcolm Callis, Steve Marshall, Advait Shinde, Rachel Bright, Kyle Anderson, Ian Dundore, Tim Curwick, Ken Penttinen, Caleb Weeks, Kathrin Janßen, Nathan Taylor, Yana Leonor, Andrei Krishkevich, Brian Thomas Gossett, Chris Peters, Kathy & Tim Philip, Mayumi Maeda, Eric Kitchen, SR Foxley, Justin Zingsheim, Andrea Bareis, Moritz Schmidt, Bader AlGhamdi, Jessica Wode, Daniel Baulig, Jirat

—

Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/YouTubeCrashCourse
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/TheCrashCourse
Tumblr - http://thecrashcourse.tumblr.com
Support Crash Course on Patreon: http://patreon.com/crashcourse

CC Kids: http://www.youtube.com/crashcoursekids

Related Content

Filters:

All 

Definitions46

Articles25

Images12

Videos14

Collections2

Definition

Social Contract

The social contract is an idea in philosophy that at some real...

Definition

Social War

The Social War (also called the Marsi War or the War of the Allies...

Definition

Greek Mythology

Greek mythology was used as a means to explain the environment...

Article

Sulla's March on Rome

In 88 BCE, Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BCE) marched on Rome...

Article

Lucius Cornelius Sulla: Guardian or Enemy of the Roman Republic?

For centuries, Lucius Cornelius Sulla has been reviled as a maniacal...

Image

The Doric Order, Classical Orders of Architecture

The Classical Orders of Architecture (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian...